Greatest Playoff Win of All Time Tournament, Game 4

Our Greatest Playoff Win Tournament of All Time has three games done, and this is the last matchup in our first bracket. I’ll give some highlights of each game, and I’ll put a poll at the end. The poll will be open for about 24 hours, you guys get to vote, and the winner by popular vote will advance. Today, our tournament continues with our next playoff win match up: the 2004 Wildcard game against Green Bay against the 2009 Divisional playoff game against Dallas.

2004 Wildcard game against the Green Bay Packers. The 2004 season was the Mike Tice era in a nutshell. At times, the VIkings looked like world beaters, while at other times they couldn’t get out of their own way. Needing a win to clinch a playoff spot the last week of the season, they lost on the road to Washington, and Randy Moss infamously walked off the field early. The Vikes still backed in as the last wildcard, though, and went to Green Bay, where no one...not even the most ardent Vikings fans, thought they had a shot. But the Vikes dominated the Packers.

Future Vikings great Brett Favre threw four picks, was sacked four times, and never really got in sync all day. On the other hand, MVP runner-up Daunte Culpepper was spectacular. He threw for 284 yards and 4 TD’s, two of them to Moss. The Superfreak’s second TD over Al Harris essentially ended the game, and culminated in the now legendary ‘Moon over Lambeau’, which in fact was not a disgusting act. The Vikes won 31-17, and for me, this was one of the most gratifying wins in team history. Walking into Lambeau and slapping around their most bitter rival, who was pretty much everyone’s darling to go to the Super Bowl, was just glorious to watch, from the opening kickoff to the final gun.

2009 Divisional playoff against the Dallas Cowboys. If the 2004 wildcard game was one of the most gratifying wins in team history, 2009 proved to be one of the most gratifying seasons. For me, 2009 will always be special, because it was the first season since the 1970’s that my Dad and I were able to watch every game together, and we both went all in on Favre the day he signed with the Vikings. Matching jerseys, everything.

There were a couple of similar narratives to the Packers game in this one, too. The Vikings were slight favorites, if I remember, but almost everyone thought Dallas was going to win. You see, Tony Romo had just won his first playoff game, and apparently that mattered for the Vikings game, because reasons. All of a sudden the Cowboys were everyone’s Super Bowl darlings, and the 13-3 Vikings were just going to be a sparring aprtner for the Cowboys tune-up to the NFC Championship game, I guess..

LOL whatever. Brett Favre and Sidney Rice destroyed the Cowboys, and the Vikes rolled 34-3. Rice had over 140 yards receiving and three touchdowns, and in the 4th quarter, with the game well in hand at 27-3 and around two minutes left, the Vikes rubbed Dallas’ nose in it with a Favre to Visanthe Shiancoe 11 yard score. Cowboys LB Keith Brooking called it unprofessional, everyone in Minnesota laughed at him, and we’re still laughing.

That win didn’t erase the Hail Mary game for me, because nothing ever will. But by God, that last touchdown to Shiancoe that that turned an ass whippin’ into an utter humiliation for the Cowboys warms my heart to this day, and will for the rest of my days.